


Teams, Times, and Tendencies

by Haunted_Frost



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, BAMF Dai-nana-han | Team 7 (Naruto), F/F, F/M, Fix-It, M/M, Multi, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Team as Family, Time Travel, Time Travel Fix-It, Work In Progress
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-13
Updated: 2021-03-04
Packaged: 2021-03-07 22:33:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 14,124
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26985232
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Haunted_Frost/pseuds/Haunted_Frost
Summary: During a last-ditch attempt to save the world, Naruto takes as many people back in time as he can to save his precious people.They land some time before the chunin exams, and they prepare to wreak havoc.
Relationships: Konoha 12 & Uchiha Sasuke, Minor or Background Relationship(s), Other Relationship Tags to Be Added, Rookie Nine & Suna no Sankyoudai | Sand Siblings
Comments: 119
Kudos: 607





	1. Leaps and Bounds

**Author's Note:**

> This is totally self-indulgent so please don't expect much. Here for a good, light-hearted fix-it fic!

Shikamaru had already decided that “impossible” was a word Naruto probably thought was imaginary. He stared around the inner area of the seal that he was applying to the floor—a maze of ink, practically—and shook his head. 

“Any chance I can back out now?” he muttered. Ino slapped him upside the head. 

“Not on your life, Nara,” she growled. “If I have to be stuck in my preteen body again, so do you.” And wasn’t that a drag: Naruto’s seal was going to send them back in time—some time before the Chunin Exams, but definitely after they graduated. It was as far back as they could reasonably go without leaving people behind, and of course Naruto was not about to let that happen, even if the future would be rewritten to save them anyway. 

If Naruto went back alone, he might even go back to his own birth—a terrifying concept, but Shikamaru bet anything that he didn’t want to be alone.

Each team of three had a portion of the seal—apparently linked to each of the elements—Earth, with Team Gai. Air, Team Asuma. Water, Team Kurenai. Fire, Team Gaara. Lightning, Team Kakashi—plus Sai, minus Naruto, who was standing in the center with a manifestation of the Kyuubi mirroring the marks he was making. Yin and yang. 

“Just—a little—more. Okay, now. Activation sequence is tiger, bull, dragon, and then throwing as much chakra through the seal as you can. Exhaustion-level, no holding back. We’ll use the signs as a countdown. Everyone ready?” Everyone nodded. Naruto grinned back at them. 

“Let’s fix this. Start!” And they all began—even Lee, who had a modified portion of the seal, was contributing to the drain that was about to happen to _bend time_. Shikamaru was only surprised that Naruto had managed to create something as complex and mind-bending this with as much time as they’d had. Madara would be giving no second chances—they would have to make their own. 

Tiger—Bull—Dragon—

_White._

Shikamaru woke to white clouds above him, the familiar morning sun-warmed roof of his house at his back. He took a few moments to breathe. While Naruto had put the seal down, everyone had made their plans—to meet at their usual team meeting places as early as possible, figuring out the exact date along the way, and as soon as they were all free, to meet on the roof of the Academy.

It had _worked_. His body was too-small, still familiar. He was a kid again. They’d made it. All those plans—there was more to do. 

One breath. Two.

_Let’s go._

He sat up, rolled his shoulders, and made his way to meet his team. 

* * *

On the way out of the gates to the Hyuga compound, Neji and Hinata paused as their elder selves’ memories came to them. An observer would see them and believe that they merely both sensed or saw something they didn’t expect. 

“I still can’t believe he did it,” Neji said mildly, and Hinata’s answering grin was blinding—an uncommon occurrence, especially given how sharp it appeared. 

“See you later, Neji,” she said, running off to meet with her team. He looked around at the village, bustling, _standing_ —and he nodded to himself before rushing to meet with Lee and Tenten. He marveled, still, at being _alive_ —not feeling the heavy wrongness of Edo Tensei in his bones—and grinned to himself as he went. 

* * *

Sakura blinked a few times at her ceiling, grimacing. She was going to have to run herself ragged to even _comfortably_ train at her previous strength. Her seal was still there—easily hidden under her headband—but her body needed a lot of work. 

That was likely the thing everyone else was finding, she mused. So many extra powers, yet—so many weaknesses. In the meantime, she could also build her reserves more, while they were still more flexible. Hell, she might even be able to work some stronger earth and water ninjutsu into her repertoire. 

This was going to _hurt_. But that kind of ache, after a good workout? That was a lot more satisfying than she used to think. 

* * *

Kiba hit the ground running, and he nearly fell over his own feet at the scent of _village/people/everyone_ , but all he did was bark at Akamaru to follow him, and they were off. He laughed wildly, and he made his way to the training grounds. When he arrived, Kurenai and Shino were already there, and Hinata was no doubt on her way. 

“Kiba. Nice of you to be so punctual today,” she said. He blinked up at her, and glanced at Shino, who inclined his head. Damn. Were they all really that tiny when they were kids? Had they all really changed that much?

“Hey, sensei,” he said, in lieu of spilling any nostalgic shit that would get them in more trouble than was worth it. 

Hinata waved as she approached, and that was even _weirder_ , seeing the echo of confidence that her older self had gained on the tiny body that had never been anything but timid. 

“Hinata, excellent. Now, as a reminder for today’s schedule—”

* * *

Ino began her day by rearranging the plants in the shop. Her parents let her take spares into her room temporarily for care or for decoration, so she set out to make a message to remind herself of their mission. Floral language had been a way for her to communicate with friends once she could teach them, and just in case Sai stopped by, she wanted to leave him some hope. 

Thyme—courage, strength. Valerian, readiness. Sorrel for affection. Tansy for declaring war. 

Because like it or not, that’s what they were going to do. Against Zetsu, Madara. And against Danzo—she had a feeling Sai might need that message, now that he was amongst ROOT yet again without a reasonable means of escape.

* * *

Sasuke woke up alone. That wasn’t particularly unusual. He sighed, going to the bathroom. For all they’d planned this, it was going to be _exhausting_. He was going to take a decent shower. He hadn’t in months, with the war, and it wasn’t like Kakashi wasn’t going to be late anyway.

Curiously, he touched his hair as he glanced at his reflection. He activated his Eternal Mangekyo and Rinnegan— _fuck_ —

Blood ran down his cheeks like tears, and he grimaced, blinking it out of his vision before deactivating them and turning on the water. His eyes hadn’t had that strain yet in this timeline. _Ugh. Seriously_? The chakra drain was ridiculous. 

He didn’t particularly care about being on time, anyway. He had every right to take a few extra minutes to himself to get used to being so damn short again.

* * *

Gaara opened his eyes, alone in his room, and gasped. He had never, would never forget Shukaku’s power, but still the empty ache and lack had been familiar, too. Now that the biju had recognized a shift in his chakra, he was no doubt going to struggle _hard_ to break free. Gaara had studied seals with Naruto after the extraction, swearing that he would never let it happen to anyone again. The extra time meant he could fix the seal from the inside. 

It also meant he had to face Shukaku in the mindscape. The tanuki was covered in half-broken chains, raging onwards. 

“Peace, Ichibi-sama,” he said, glancing around at the tangled chains.

Shukaku turned his attention on him, and he winced at the killing intent, but did nothing else. 

“You will _free_ me, you puny idiot human, I will have blood from this, I—”

“You are sealed in me, and freeing you kills one or both of us. You _might_ come back from that, but I wouldn’t. I can at least fix this seal so it doesn’t leak our chakra against one another anymore.” 

Shukaku growled. 

“I am the one-tailed tanuki, a being of pure malice, and you would threaten _me_ only to enslave me further?”

“I would rather have you as an ally than an enemy, Shukaku,” Gaara said, finally finding the weakest link of chains. “Let me prove that.” He grabbed either barbed end, and wrenched them apart before slamming his fist into the biju’s snout to distract him. Quickly, he drew his hand across Shukaku’s brow, impressing his chakra in the form Naruto had taught him. 

The chains _shattered,_ falling apart as golden dust. Shukaku howled in confusion before finally quieting. 

“You know my name,” he said, his twitching tail the only moving part of him. Gaara nodded. 

“You are Shukaku. Your elder siblings are Matatabi, Son Goku, Gyukki, Isobu, Kurama—”

“ _Enough_. You appear older in mind than body. Explain.”

“Time travel. The world was ending, more or less. I’m still your container, but this time I won’t be driven insane by a broken seal and your chakra. I won’t allow for the powers working against us to kill you and summon the Juubi. For now, I have to figure out what time I’m in, exactly, and what to do with it. I imagine you’ve been sleeping as little as I have, in this time. Care to take a nap?”

“Hm. You assume a lot of authority, little Gaara.”

“Not quite so little, and I just know you well,” he said, refusing to break the staring contest that had begun. Finally, Shukaku grumbled. 

“I’ll sleep on it, brat. It’s not like I don’t have time to kill. But you’re telling me everything later.”

“Absolutely.”

Upon leaving the mindscape, he found himself surrounded by his sand barrier, which was a pincushion of explosive tags. Shit—ANBU guards must have noticed the flare when he broke the old seal. 

He shook himself and held still. How would he get out of this one, exactly?

“What the _hell_?” growled—thank goodness—his brother’s voice. “Let us through!”

“Kankuro-san, that’s not the best idea—”

“ _Fuck you_ it’s not,” he replied. Temari continued. 

“Though removing the explosive tags would be appreciated, ANBU-sans. The chakra flare isn’t happening anymore, is it? He must have figured out how to quiet it down, like we talked about the other day.” Risky—they talked infrequently at this age, and they might not buy that they wouldn’t know about any meetings. 

“I’m going to lower the sand,” he called through the barrier, trying to keep any panic out of his voice. “If you want your tags back to use later, I won’t interfere. Don’t bother wasting them against my defense.” 

When he lowered the barrier, there were his siblings, both tense and searching his face. He tilted his head, meeting each of their eyes before smiling ever so slightly. 

“Temari. Kankuro. Do you want to stay over with me for the day?” Anxiety poured off of the ANBU in waves. 

“Sure,” Kankuro said. “’S long as there aren’t any repeat incidents of _that_ ,” he said, gesturing to the tags now stacked neatly on the ground. 

“I think I’ve gotten the hang of it,” Gaara said. He could guess what the guards thought that meant—the hang of them, of Shukaku, of his bloodlust, of his power. Any of the above.

“Good enough for me,” Temari said, and with that kind of dismissal, the guards left their company, no doubt to report the incident to Baki and their father.

* * *

Tenten crossed her arms, raising her brows as Lee began running circuits around the grounds. 

“I am at a disadvantage with my body like this! I will need to return to my peak form post-haste!”

“And this time Gaara isn’t going to hospitalize you like that, so you won’t have to start from scratch. You’ll have more time regardless,” she said dryly. Once Gai got there from his daily Kakashi-challenge, she’d watch him carefully. She wondered whether their sensei was going to notice the cause of this reinvigoration of his closest pupil or whether he’d find it par for the course. 

(If there was one constant on their team, it was Lee. She was very glad for that.)

“I’m not surprised,” Neji said. “It’s—uncomfortable, not having the full range that I had before. Spar, Tenten?”

“I need to look away from the green blur before I go cross-eyed,” she agreed. 

. . .

They gathered at about noon, when their senseis all gave them breaks for lunch. They met on the roof of the Academy, lunches sprawled out between them to share if there were things they’d packed or bought for one another. 

From afar, it looked like a friendly picnic. Up close, the grim determination on their faces said otherwise. 

A war council of pre-teens. 

Even now, looking at all of them, it was more than a bit strange. 

“How close is everyone to an outright breakdown?” Ino asked first, met with mostly shrugs. 

“I mean, not really? I know I missed them, and we won’t have the same memories with them, but—they’re still the people we care about, even if they don’t know it yet,” Naruto said, scratching at his whisker marks. 

“It does help that you brought so many of us back,” agreed Shino. “Because we still have people who remember.”

“Still, it’s weird. It’s Kurenai-sensei, but not,” Kiba shrugged.

“They may suspect the change,” warned Shikamaru. Naruto shrugged, because yes, he’d thought of that. 

“We don’t have to keep it a secret from _everyone_. Just people that would get in the way, ultimately. Like, I’m not going to tell Konohamaru, or Teuchi, or probably Jiji. But if each of our immediate families or senseis figure us out—well.”

“But they would report it to the Hokage,” Lee pointed out. Neji shrugged.

“Not necessarily. They know that there are some things you keep from your leaders for the sake of everyone else. Families, you said?”

“Not until after the Chunin exams, at least. And I trust all of your judgements, on that—whether you think it’s necessary, or whether you, personally, need them at your back for this, or whether it’s too big of a risk, you know?” Naruto said. “Just let us know who knows.”

“Yeah, not telling my parents _a thing_ about this,” Sakura muttered. 

“Shikamaru, plans?” Naruto asked.

“Right—we’ll go as teams, for now, since that’s how we’re stuck anyway in our squads. Team Gai, you three will be working on evacuation plans with me and researching in-village politics. With two of you not from major clans, you’ll get a less biased perspective than the rest of us and can ask us to help on the more personal issues the council votes on. Team Asuma and Kurenai will be investigating Root and finding evidence to oust Danzo. Team Kakashi will be making training regiments for the rest of us—Naruto on seals and ninjutsu, Sakura on building chakra reserves and medical ninjutsu, and Sasuke on weapons and genjutsu. Sasuke, work with Lee on taijutsu regimens. Ino, I need you to contact Sai, and Team Kurenai will track Root members once we can get tags on them. Naruto, you need to contact Gaara to figure out Suna’s perspective and how we can prevent or mitigate the invasion. Team Kakashi is going to be in charge of dealing with Kabuto and Orochimaru, since they didn’t die the first time around and no one questioned it.”

“And when we’re out of village?” asked Neji. 

“Keep an eye out for rumors. We don’t know about the Akatsuki’s movements except for long before they came here and after the exams. Once the exams are over, we’ll make more decisions on how to deal with Akatsuki.”

“Should we all actually go for chunin?” asked Sakura. “Last time, only a handful ranked on the first try.”

“We need higher clearance for everyone, and we need to keep teams intact,” Naruto said. “We’ll show off just enough. Work your way up to higher-level jutsus away from your senseis, but don’t go higher than C-rank unless there’s a legitimate necessity. Unless you’re actually facing Kabuto, Orochimaru, or an Akatsuki member, don’t do B-rank or higher. Once we’re chunin, up what I said by one level, only keep the A and S rank jutsus in your back pocket. After the exams, it was a couple months before Itachi and Kisame showed up for me, so Orochimaru and Kabuto are our focus. I’m—not sure whether to save the Third yet. I’ll talk to Gaara tonight and see if Orochimaru has already killed the Kazekage or not,” Naruto said. He sighed. 

“I can’t believe we’re doing this,” he said quietly, a small smile forming rather than the huge grin people often saw on him. 

“You and all the rest of us,” chuckled Shikamaru. “Now let’s eat. Empty stomachs for the rest of the day would be a pain in the ass for training later.”

* * *

Kakashi stared at his students, who were definitely not this regimented yesterday. 

Sakura and Sasuke were each sparring with Naruto clones, while Naruto was apparently seeing how many he could spam one at a time, because as soon as one dispersed, another took its place. 

“My students are so diligent being so early today!” he exclaimed. 

“LATE!” all five voices (including the two Naruto clones) rang out, all pointing accusingly at him. Even Sasuke, who he’d expected had given up scolding him, was joining in. 

_Interesting_. 

“Since you all had so much fun sparring together, today, we’re going to do three D-Ranks, and then I’m going to test you to see what elemental affinity you have. I grabbed the mission scrolls on my way in; here you go!” It was a repair job for a fence, walking some of the unclaimed ninken for the Inuzuka clan, and weeding out an old woman’s garden. They read through each of them and nodded. 

“Naruto, you on weeding or fence?” Sakura said. 

“Fence—the garden is old lady Chisaki. She doesn’t like me all that much.”

“We’ll do the garden, dobe,” Sasuke said, rolling his eyes. “How fast can you be done? We’ll need all three of us to walk the dogs.”

A simple chat, but it did restore credibility that his students had not been kidnapped and replaced by convincing henge’d doppelgangers. 

“Oh yeah, teme? I’ll have the fence done in under an hour, dattebayo!”

“All right. Meet at the Inuzukas’ entrance in an hour?”

“Sounds good,” Sakura said. “Kakashi-sensei, I know you’re supposed to supervise, but if it’s only an hour, can we meet you, too, when we’re done?”

“Maa, I’ll just send a clone after Naruto,” he said, waving dismissively. He didn’t normally summon shadow clones, but today was proving off enough to warrant it. True to their words, everyone finished the first two missions in under an hour, and Kakashi watched them meet up to pick up the dogs for their walk. 

He’d never seen his team so cooperative. Sure, Sakura still stared after Sasuke in an odd way, and Naruto was still loud, and Sasuke pretended to ignore both, but—it felt off. Not rehearsed, per se, but constructed to some degree. 

Once they’d done the requisite missions and turned in the scrolls, he felt miffed—that was supposed to take up most of the day, so they’d find out their affinities too late to do anything about it. 

“This is chakra induction paper—it’s rather expensive, but it can be used to detect what elemental nature your chakra is connected with. It doesn’t mean that you can’t somewhat do other jutsu—it just indicates what you could most easily have the strongest connection with. For example—” he directed his chakra into his spare sheet. It wrinkled, crumpling in on itself into a ball. 

“If your nature is fire, it will burn. If it’s wind, it will split in half. If it’s lightning, like mine, it will wrinkle. If it’s earth, it will crumble into dust. If it’s water, it will get damp. If you have more than one nature, it’ll do more than one thing. Now, who wants to go first?”

Naruto cried out and made a grabbing hands motion. Kakashi sighed and handed him the first one, telling him to put a small amount of chakra into the paper. His brow furrowed, but a moment later the paper sliced in half. 

“Wind!” he said, grinning, “Nice! There’s a lot I could do with that—”

“Sakura, why don’t you go next?” Kakashi asked, before an incoming rambling tirade began. Sakura nodded and channeled chakra to only have the paper go damp, then crumble away. He blinked. 

“Two affinities! It looks like your water one is stronger, but you have earth, too.” Then Sasuke glanced at him before following in his teammates’ footsteps. 

Crumple. Burn. 

“Between the three of you, you cover all five elements,” he said, a little disbelieving. Scratch that, a _lot_ disbelieving. 

“Yeah, and that’s why we’re the _best_ team, dattebayo!” Naruto said. “Think of all the different jutsu combos!”

“That’ll be something we start working on tomorrow. The next thing I need to tell you is that I’ve nominated you for the upcoming chunin exams.” Immediately, they all straightened. 

“Already, sensei?” Sakura asked, a tic in her voice that might have been nerves. (Before their odd behavior, he might have chalked it up to that—but like so many things today, it was _off_.)

“Yes—but you can only enter as a three-person team, or not at all,” he warned. “You have to sign up on your own, of course—here are the forms—but from here on out, if you decide to do it, I’m training you much harder than you’re used to.”

“Bring it on, Kakashi-sensei!” grinned Naruto.

“Tch,” Sasuke rolled his eyes, but it seemed more an affirmation than a dismissal. 

“We can do it,” agreed Sakura. 

What had _happened_ to his students?


	2. Exam Troubleshooting

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's not just Kakashi's students that have gone strange!

Kurenai shook her head. 

“It’s more of a—it’s a smaller, more constant drain, like tree-walking,” she explained as the three of them focused on their genjutsu. This was a subtle one that interfered with depth perception, ideally making opponents believe that they were closer than they appeared. It appealed to all of their styles to one degree or another. Hinata would be able to stay out of range and still push her offense, Kiba would be able to switch out with Akamaru more smoothly should he use the beast clone, and Shino could use his bugs as a barrier more effectively. 

Shino and Hinata got it first, but for once, Kiba wasn’t giving up in frustration when they did. He frowned. 

“Sensei, could you show me again? I’m not sure what I’m doing wrong,” he said. She had Hinata and Shino spar in the meantime. She showed him again, motioning for him to try after she’d finished. 

Two more attempts, and then—there, he’d done it. She nodded. 

“Five more times, to be sure it wasn’t luck,” she said, and he didn’t whine and complain like he had only two days ago. He just grumbled shortly, nodded, and began. 

* * *

Gai was pleasantly surprised to see Neji more diligently adhering to their training. Tenten and Lee were both following closely to his instructions, but Neji had so often fallen back on exclusively Hyuuga clan katas. 

That didn’t seem to be the case today. 

“Are you attempting my form, Neji?” he asked. The boy blinked up at him, then nodded. 

“I need to diversify. Any opponent might have a good counter to the Hyuuga’s signature moves, and at that point, the Academy standard wouldn’t be enough to fall back on. You _are_ known for your taijutsu prowess, sensei.”

“Ah! Yes! I am so proud that my student is showing such youthfulness today! Tenten, would you like to learn the form with Neji? Lee is exemplary and can assist in teaching it!”

“Sure, sensei!” she said, and lined up with Neji. Lee lined up with Gai, mirroring them, and they began the first kata, which he’d taught them all already. 

His students were far more driven, as of late. Even Lee seemed to have a new spark in his eyes.

* * *

Baki frowned. Gaara had never once seemed interested in defying politics or refusing to kill, but all of a sudden—

“I’m not going to fight the Leaf,” he said, “They’re our allies, and Oto is goading us into a war with them.”

“This is a mission from your Kazekage,” he said sharply. He had long since trained himself out of flinching after doing so, but he still _did,_ because Gaara didn’t even react to it. At least, not how he expected. Instead of blank, unmoving deadpan or an immediate attack, he just shrugged. 

“It’s not, really—Father is.” He sighed, pressing the heels of his hands into his temples, as if to ward away a headache. It was eerily reminiscent of Rasa, actually. Luckily, Temari took over. 

“Kankuro and I have been watching him, and that’s not Father. We admitted our suspicions to Gaara, and he agrees. Orochimaru is posing as him to make us a scapegoat for _his_ invasion,” she said. 

“You can’t be serious,” Baki said. Gaara shook his head. 

“I wouldn’t have noticed if Temari and Kankuro hadn’t come to me with their concerns. With the Ichibi, I have a stronger sense of malicious intent. And Father’s didn’t match Orochimaru’s before, but now? Now it’s identical. That doesn’t happen.” Baki grimaced. 

“What are you planning on doing, then? We can’t confront him outright.”

“We should tell the Hokage, when we get to Konoha. We’ll have a stronger number of allies,” Gaara said.

Damn. Gaara was honestly considering treason. To _not_ kill people.

He had two possibilities here: the kids were right, or the kids were wrong. Were they right, the course of action Gaara presented was probably the smartest one. Were they wrong or lying, he’d have to explain to his Kazekage that his jinchuuriki and two other children were staging a coup. 

He had two general responses either way—side with the Kazekage, or with the children. Were they right, and he sided with them, it would overall be good for Suna (and for his health—no matter how docile Gaara had seemed lately, he wasn’t chancing anything). Worse come to worse, if they’re wrong, he’s on the One-Tails jinchuuriki’s side, and that’s not a bad side to be on if he’s not feeling too bloodthirsty. Was he more scared of Gaara, Rasa, or Orochimaru? Who did he trust more?

The children looked up at him, warily, expectantly. 

“All right. Let’s talk about what we’re going to do,” he said, because not much was going to change until they got to Konoha anyway. 

He’d already made his decision, regardless. 

* * *

There was something up with his students, and he’d be damned if Asuma wasn’t going to figure out what. They held themselves just shy of how he was used to seeing. And they were clingy—they lingered closer to him. It would seem like a childish thing, if he didn’t know them to be acting so _mature_ otherwise—

Chouji was the first indication that something was up. Oh, he had his requisite chip bag, but he actually put it down for training, and he tentatively stepped up to fight Ino. Once he was in the ring, he didn’t hesitate, not really, no matter the nerves that showed on his face. Shikamaru showed up on time, and he sat to watch his friends spar rather than sleeping through it. 

And then Ino—who had only seemed interested in looks—was flicking her ponytail over her shoulder before proclaiming she needed to go weapons shopping, and did he know any sai techniques, and really, if she got senbon with paralytics, she might have more opportunities to use her mind transfer technique with less danger in a group situation. 

Just. What.

When he asked where it came from, she shrugged—saying that being strong was the only way she was _actually_ going to beat Sakura, and well, that wasn’t too off from what he had expected.

And rather than groan and mumble and drag their heels, they took their D-ranks, finished them quickly, and then _went back to training_. Without a single bribe or complaint. 

If he wasn’t certain that these were his students, he’d suspect someone playing a prank, or worse, having kidnapped them—but they were still Ino, Shikamaru, and Chouji. He didn’t want to confront them. Shikamaru cast a knowing eye towards him at the end of the day—he knew their behavior was strange, then, and knew Asuma had caught it. 

What had happened to them?

* * *

“Are your brats suddenly crazy, too?” Kakashi demanded as they sat down at the bar. 

“Too?” Kurenai asked. “What do you mean?”

“There’s something off. I can’t explain it. They work together better than ever, and I don’t know what set it off. They’re themselves, but—one step to the left of what I know them as. Sasuke hasn’t actually insulted Naruto once in three days. Sakura cut her hair and stopped fangirling. _Naruto is competently training with his teammates before I show up for training_. What the hell?”

“Hinata and Shino have actively decided to spar hand-to-hand with Kiba,” Kurenai admitted. “Hinata explained that even though she doesn’t like to fight, she ought to learn how to end fights quickly so people learn to stop starting them.”

“Ino,” grumbled Asuma, “has been looking for someone to train her with sai swords and has been talking with _Anko_ about senbon training. Chouji has taken it upon himself to ask around the hospital for medic training, and Shikamaru doesn’t even doze off anymore in the middle of things. I don’t have to bribe them at all. I’m _so confused._ ”

“Indeed, it seems like all of our students are pushing to the limits with youthful vigor for the exams,” said Gai, “Though it is strange. They started the day before I told them.”

“Same! They rushed through their D-ranks in the morning and learned their first elemental jutsus in two days. Barring the great fireball, of course—but. But what the hell? What happened?” Kakashi asked.

An ANBU flickered into the bar, one that he didn’t recognize. They looked awfully short—awfully _young_ —for ANBU. ROOT, maybe? The mask was blank, but they were too relaxed. Everyone else tensed. 

“Your students are more or less fine,” said the voice behind the mask, “I promise. After the exams, they’ve agreed to tell you everything, so don’t push them beforehand, or they might not trust you with the whole story. They asked me to check in on you all regarding the recent changes. Don’t worry about it too much—when we all tell you, I’m sure that’ll be enough worrying for everyone.”

“Who the hell are you?” grumbled Asuma. The ROOT member put up his hands in defense. 

“A fellow Leaf shinobi, and one of the seventeen people that know what’s going on with your students. They asked me to tell you, so if you ask them about me, just ask about the rotten root.” 

That was a staggering confirmation, and it didn’t ease Kakashi’s nerves one bit. 

“And why the hell should we trust your word?” asked Asuma. The ROOT agent tilted his head. 

“Because most ROOT agents can’t talk about it like it exists? If you don’t trust me, that’s fine. I’ll do my best to earn that. Until then—goodbye, shinobi-sans.” With a swirl of leaves, he was gone.

“I need another drink,” grumbled Asuma. 

* * *

“Hey, watch where you’re goin’, pipsqueak,” Kankuro snapped as the kid ran headlong into him. 

“ _You_ watch,” the kid replied, and yeah, it didn’t matter what timeline it was, Konohamaru was a brat. Still, he didn’t hang the kid by his wrist this time and threaten him. 

“Hey, watch it!” called a damn familiar voice. It was good to hear Naruto, after waiting so long on just Gaara’s recounting of their conversations.

“Neh, sorry, little brat ran into me,” he shrugged. Temari flicked his nose, and Gaara chuckled. 

“Konohamaru, leave ‘em alone—they’re shinobi from another village here for the chunin exams. They dunno how things work around here, yeah?”

“All right, boss,” the kid chirped before rushing away. 

“My name’s Naruto,” he said, and oh, right, they weren’t supposed to know each other. 

“Kankuro. This is my little brother, Gaara.”

“And I’m their sister, Temari. We’re a team from Suna for the exams.”

“Heh, yeah, figured. Wanna meet some of your Konoha competitors?” Kankuro glanced at Temari, who was blushing. _Ha._

“I’d like that,” said Gaara with a small smile. “Lead the way.”

* * *

“So essentially, Orochimaru doesn’t have a single Suna ally, because they fear Gaara a hell of a lot more than him.” Temari finished her report. 

“That’s good,” Shikamaru nodded, “It’s just him and Sound we have to worry about, then. Are you telling the Hokage directly, or—”

“We’ve got nine other teams from our village,” said Kankuro. “Either way, we have to wait it out a little bit—if any of them suspect, we might end up with losing them to Orochimaru. The guy doesn’t care about collateral like we do.”

“I snatched a copy of the participant list from Ibiki when I brought lunch for T&I a couple of days ago,” Ino said. “I know we went through it already, but it’s better to have a written copy than to trust memories that can change.” TenTen leaned forward, intrigued. 

“Ooh, what do we have?”

“Well, we start off with fifty teams of three,” she listed, “Here, we can worry about individuals after round two—everyone has to make it in teams until then anyway.”

“22 teams from Konoha—4 are us, so that leaves 18 outliers that might or might not pass the first round. Ten teams from Suna, one being guaranteed a spot, so nine. I don’t think Ame fared well last time in the second round—Orochimaru wasn’t gentle with them, and that didn’t improve relations with them later. Kusa, there’s five teams, one of which Orochimaru infiltrates.”

“Karin was on another Kusa team,” Sasuke interrupted. “She only really joined Orochimaru because I did after I saved her—I think she might be an Uzumaki, Naruto, and no, it’s not just the red hair. She wore an Uzu pendant. I do want to save her this time around, too, but she didn’t really care about being a chunin.”

“—right, well, that’s two teams of interest from Kusa.”

“Four teams from Taki. I don’t know for sure if Fuu came to this exam, but honestly, if she ditched after failing out trying to avoid using any biju powers, I wouldn’t be surprised.”

“And two teams from Oto—Dosu’s and Kabuto’s,” Ino finished. “And they’ll try to narrow us all down to at least twenty for the final round. So what’s the plan?”

“Keep people not from Oto alive?” suggested Shikamaru. “With Shukaku not making Gaara into a time bomb, that takes out one of the more dangerous ends of the whole thing. And with Naruto knowing he has the Kyuubi and what that means—that puts us two known powerhouses to their one. Of course, this will definitely change up the brackets and maybe the plan Orochimaru has for the invasion, but at least we can keep Sasuke in the damned village this time.” 

“Yeah, even if he tags him again, I actually know a counter to the seal,” Naruto nodded. “I’ll see if I can contact Anko after the exams to get rid of hers.”

“The second test cuts teams down in half at least,” continued Shikamaru. “And prelims to a quarter. So, since we’re pretty much guaranteed spots, we can pick and choose who makes it further after the written exam. Barring Orochimaru, we can pretty much take down everyone involved.”

“Since some of them are actually capable of becoming chunin, we might have an overcrowded preliminary round,” warned Sakura.

“Hey, if we all get to the last exam, that just means we get to show off to a fuller capacity,” Naruto shrugged, “Because we can actually set specific limits on our own rounds and go to town otherwise.”

“And if you occupy Orochimaru earlier on, and I don’t kill anyone, that leaves a lot more genin alive to go to the next round,” Gaara pointed out. 

They continued to chatter, solidifying plans and backup plans. While they were serious . . . it was relaxed. They’d had time enough to settle in a world that wasn’t outright at war, and they knew more than their enemies. It was a relief to be together. 

This time, they were going to outdo everyone that underestimated them.

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> More of the time-travelers prepping themselves for their first big foes in the exams!


	3. Blessed Hell Seal

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Chunin Exams begin.

The day of the exam, the strange ROOT member appeared again. This time, there was a noticeable change in their looks – the usual Konoha symbol on the metal plate on their arm now simply held the kanji for shinobi. 

“Care to explain _now_ what’s up with our student?” asked Asuma. 

“You know, if you asked Shikamaru directly, he might even cave and tell you,” the self-titled rotten root said blandly. “Although we planned to tell you all after the chunin exams, no one will object if something gets out early. There are just some eyes and ears in the village that we’re wary of is all.” 

“Foreign influences?” Kurenai asked. It was a fair bet—ninja from all villages were in Konoha, after all. 

“Negligent security aside, it’s more people coming from the same background as me that worries them when it comes to exposure. Can you wait to sate your curiosities?”

“Patience _is_ a virtue,” Kakashi grumbled. “Fine. Then why are you here?”

“To warn you that there _is_ a breach in village security and to be on the lookout. There’s a snake in the leaves once again.” With that, the ROOT member disappeared again, and everyone in the jounin standby station had frozen and paled. 

Especially Anko. 

* * *

“Oh, look, a genjutsu,” said Shino flatly as they passed the false exam room. 

Other teams squawked at the realization, then followed Team Kurenai up the stairs, ignoring the bemused chunin blocking the false door. 

The written exam went much the same as before, though Sasuke used a genjutsu to make more genin pass the nine questions without getting caught—more genin passing the first round meant more people able to participate in later rounds. It would suck for the genin hopefuls that they were going to dominate the competition, so he figured he’d give them an extra hand to at least be considered later. 

Naruto still spouted about how he wasn’t going to give up, and people still stayed even after the chunin plants left. 

While they gathered for the second portion of the exam, the time travelers made it a point to mingle with different villages that they knew less about. 

“There’s a lot of Ame genin, huh? I remember a bit of history about it, but, uh, who’s the leader of Amegakure right now? Are they really strong?” wondered Naruto aloud. The nearest Ame team snorted.

“It’s Pain-sama,” grumbled one, “Though Konan-sama does more of the work.”

“Tends to feel that way in most places,” nodded Shikamaru. “My dad, the jounin commander, always talks about how the Hokage complains about paperwork heaps when he gets less than half the load.” 

“Mm-hm,” the same one answered. 

Meanwhile, Ino of all people was sidling up to the Kusa team that had Orochimaru on it. She started talking with another teammate, comparing weapons preferences based on the terrain of the mission. Sasuke and Sakura both looked ready to strangle her for getting so close. It wasn’t like Orochimaru could expose himself then and there, but she was asking about Kusa, so there was at least that. 

Just for spite purposes, Sakura went up to the other Kusa team and chatted with Karin about how beautiful her hair was and the nerves for the second exam. She seemed timid, but at least making a social connection before the forest might get her to trust them a little quicker. When Anko made her entrance, the whole group flinched—even the time travelers, who’d gotten caught up in their attempts to gather info. Though she seemed a lot stiffer this time around, she still gave the same spiel as the first time around. 

“Fuck me,” muttered Kiba. “Not again.” Ino only grinned, waving at her new mentor. 

Everyone signed their waivers after reading them. Shikamaru noted that there wasn’t a clause for dropping out or calling the proctors, and grimaced—this really was the prime exam for an invasion. He was going to have to look into ways to counter security breaches later. 

The Forest of Death loomed in front of them. It wasn’t half as scary as the war to come—they were jounin against genin, by all rights—but the energy of the first time round still settled over them. These were the first major changes they were making. This was what hey could expect. 

Teams Kurenai, Asuma, Gai, and Baki sped to the teams they’d scouted beforehand while waiting between the exams, checked their scrolls, and herded the poor genin into the same general area. Team Baki got a scroll first—though not the one they needed—and rotated over to Team Kurenai’s location. They got the correct scroll, though, so both teams moved in towards where teams Gai and Asuma were tag-teaming another pair of genin teams. Between the four time travelling teams, all twelve of the other genin were knocked out, tied up, and lacking scrolls. 

Team Kakashi, on the other hand, moved towards the tower directly. They could pick off teams once they got there, fight Orochimaru on the way, and keep the outside influences minimal. The other four teams would catch up if they had to.

It was day two of the exam when they felt the killing intent hit, and Sasuke sensed snake summons in the forest. He’d made a contract with them again, along with the hawks. This time, however, Orochimaru hadn’t been party to it. With two conflicting masters, summons tended to return to their home if they couldn’t reconcile orders. Sasuke had gotten Manda to agree to be summoned, but not actively harm him or his allies. At least that way, he’d be able to keep up the ruse. 

“You can come out,” shouted Naruto after Sasuke signaled Orochimaru’s arrival. “We’re still looking for a second scroll; we can take you on!”

When Orochimaru entered the clearing, they all stilled, pretending to be caught in the killing intent. 

“My name is Orochimaru,” he said. 

“As in, the S-class missing-nin, the Snake Sannin?” asked Sakura, choking on her rage for effect to seem fearful. 

“Mm, yes. It appears that your education wasn’t quite as lacking as I’d been told in reports,” he mused. “Clever girl.” Rather than continue staring in shock, Sakura scoffed. 

“I’m a fan of Tsunade; don’t flatter yourself,” she said, immediately breaking the facade. “You’re a footnote.” His eyes flashed brighter and his amused smile dropped. 

“I’m not here for you, anyway, so I believe you ought to be more careful with what you say. I could easily kill you here and no one would guess it was me.”

“You’re not killing any of us,” Naruto said, stepping in front of both of his teammates. “Not a chance!”

“Hm, perhaps not.”

It wasn’t that simple by a long shot, of course. Orochimaru was planning on a hit-and-run to place a seal that Naruto had spent plenty of time in the future learning how to break. Even if he _did_ succeed again, it wouldn’t be for long. But if they could kill or capture him now, that would end any chance of invasion. 

So they let him talk, to hopefully trap the trapper. 

“I’m more interested in the young Uchiha,” he said, and Sasuke straightened. Orochimaru made his case again, and Sasuke stayed silent for the whole of it. Finally, when offered power, Sasuke raised an eyebrow. 

“You want me, and in exchange you’ll help me kill Itachi?” 

“Yes, and—”

“Well, I don’t really want to kill him, so that’s a bad deal,” Sasuke said evenly. 

This made Orochimaru pause. 

“You don’t want to kill the man that massacred the Uchiha?”

“I would love to kill Shimura Danzo, yes.” 

At this, Naruto and Sakura grimaced at one another. 

Orochimaru had been a point of contention among them all—unsure of whether he was more useful as an ally or as a corpse, or whether he deserved to be useful at all. Naruto argued for forgiveness to some degree for both him and Obito, if they could get them on the right path. Shikamaru had looked exasperated, as usual, but he agreed that their power alone was worth considering if they changed sides. Most of the rest were uncomfortable with the idea, but not entirely opposed. 

“He was my sensei, despite both his and my reasons,” Sasuke finally said. “We’ll kill him if we have to, hell, I’ll do it myself, but we did come back here to save people and change things. If he’s one possible change, then it only makes sense to take advantage of what we know.” 

“Moving speech, but he’s already done a lot of harm and none of the good that we remember him doing,” Temari argued. 

“But we know he’s _capable_ of it, and there’s a lot of harm he could prevent,” Ino said, reluctantly fidgeting with a kunai. “I agree that he’s a terrible person, but he’s damn good at being a shinobi and a scientist, and if he _can_ be a resource for us, we would be idiots to turn it down. Morally correct idiots, but when have morals actually been a part of being a shinobi?” Shikamaru pointed at her with a commiserating nod. Kiba growled. 

“Ugh! I know he’s smart, but he should still pay for what he’s done!”

“Sealing his chakra and putting him in jail would be fitting. He wants to learn every jutsu? Take that away,” TenTen said. “With a decent ANBU guard.” 

Which led them to their agreement—Sasuke would attempt to convince Orochimaru to join their side, and they’d keep him in-village and incapacitated as long as possible. 

And the best way Sasuke could see in appealing to Orochimaru? Was brutal truths, just the way he’d been taught. 

“He was targeted by Danzo for the ‘sake of Konoha’, same as you. The difference is that you’re a scholar, and he’s a pacifist, so he had to use different tactics to use both of you.”

Orochimaru’s eyes flashed. 

“What would you know about that, boy?”

“Too much,” Sasuke said. “I don’t intend to be your puppet, regardless.” 

It was then that Orochimaru moved to strike. Manda circled keeping everyone in the clearing, but didn’t follow his older master’s lead. Sasuke didn’t hesitate to keep the man on a wild goose chase, dodging just a little too quickly for the genin he was supposed to be. Naruto and Sakura, meanwhile, were making it their mission to fuck up the landscape—the Forest of Death was, after all, a training ground Orochimaru would have been used to, and earthquakes from punches and toppling tree limbs cut by the wind itself certainly got in the way. 

It was form of combat Orochimaru was familiar with being a part of, as Tsunade’s former teammate, but not one he’d prepared for with this fight in particular. In a desperate bid, he dashed faster for Sasuke and bit his neck, disappearing in a swirl of leaves moments later. Sakura and Naruto grimaced, the fight over before they could make their move. 

“Damn,” Naruto said, “Well, at least I stole the scroll off of him with one of my clones. And hey, it’s the one we need!”

“Now we just need to keep Team Dosu off of Karin,” Sasuke nodded, “The others are selectively helping other teams, right?”

“The proctors are just going to have to deal with a crowded final exam,” Naruto shrugged. “Almost none of the Kage are gonna show, though, unless Orochimaru gets to Jiji again.”

* * *

Team Gai was the first one to the tower, despite it all. Gai certainly had his chance to beam at Kakashi and exclaim about how youthful his students were. 

He was humbled, at least a little, when Team Seven returned, battered and with Sasuke sporting an ugly seal on his neck. 

“Orochimaru got into the exam,” said Sakura. Kakashi straightened. The warning from the ROOT member echoed in his memory - _There's a snake in the leaves once again_. 

“ _What?_ ”

Naruto and Sakura began reporting what had happened, and Anko, who’d been doing paperwork beside the entrance, stood suddenly once Sakura explained that the Kusa kunoichi from earlier was, in fact, Orochimaru in disguise, and that he’d bitten Sasuke. 

“You faced Orochimaru,” Kakashi said slowly. They each nodded. 

“And he bit Sasuke and placed a seal on him—but I can do the counter, it’s fine—and he wanted to steal Sasuke to use as his ‘next body’ or whatever so he can live forever, but we chased him off before he could get much further than the dumb seal, and—”

“He placed a _what?_ ” Kakashi grabbed Sasuke by the shoulder and examined it. He frowned. 

“Naruto, there’s no way you could know the counter to this. This is the cursed heaven seal—”

“—and it’s part of why we’re weird lately,” Naruto said. “Uh, we were gonna wait until after the chunin exams to tell people though. And I _can_ counter it; I just need some sealing supplies!”

“Did you not bring any with you?” asked Sakura. “You’d think you would.”

“I _did_ , but I gave the stuff to TenTen because her need was more urgent!”

“What do you _mean_ you can reverse it? You’re a kid!” Anko scoffed. Naruto shrugged. 

“Apparently the Uzumaki were seal masters? Must be in my blood, you know?” 

“I have my own sealing stuff; you should have just kept it,” TenTen admonished. 

Naruto made grabby hands and then went to work. The other jounin senseis stared—the ones who knew about Orochimaru with no little awe—and Naruto indeed was writing up a complicated seal. Naruto slapped it onto the black mark on Sasuke’s neck. He hissed as the chakra bit into him, the seals basically fighting on his skin, and sighed. The scroll turned to black ash, and when it did, the seal was gone. 

Anko screeched. 

“What the hell was _that?_ ”

“You want the counter, too?” Naruto asked, already pulling out another scroll. 

“What did you _do_?” she said. 

“Countered his Cursed Heaven with my own Blessed Hell seal,” he said, already writing. “Y’know, I wish people would realize that studying seals is kinda awesome? I mean, I’m a bit biased, but there’s a whole ton of shit you can do if you know how to construct something and—ha! Here it is! Ready to get that creepy hickey off of you?” he asked. 

She blinked before a big smile bloomed on her face. 

“Hell yeah, kid, do your worst.”

* * *

“Thirty-three of them goddamn made it,” grumbled Ibiki, “That’s _such bullshit._ We’re going to have a tournament bracket of sixteen!”

Anko burst into the room. 

“One of the kids is _insane_ ,” she proclaimed, “He fucking fixed the Cursed Heaven seal!”

“One of the foreign nin?”

“Nah, Uzumaki.” Every chunin in the room that had ever chased him around for his pranks laughed. 

“Yeah, right!”

“I’m not kidding,” she said, and once they realized that she _wasn’t_ , they paled as they imagined the chaotic possibilities the kid now held. 

“He _what?_ ”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This fic isn't my best; I'll admit that here, but I am having fun with the different concepts! From here on out it's going to be a long break between updates, partially because I suck at fight scenes and partially because the rest isn't prewritten like the chapters so far. 
> 
> I hope you enjoyed regardless!


	4. Exam Cramming

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prelims and preparation for the final exam.

“Because so many damn genin passed this far, there’ll be a preliminary match now to determine who competes in the final exam. Your goal for this match is to win. Names will be drawn to determine the matches, and we’ll get started right away. The goal is to beat your opponent or to have them forfeit as soon as possible.”

“First round, we have—Hyuuga Neji versus Yamada Fuu.” Naruto’s eyes widened and he turned to Neji. 

“That’s the seven-tails jinchurriki. Uh. Don’t overdo it?” he said. “I’m pretty sure she’s avoiding using her biju for the exams.” Neji’s eyes widened. 

“Should I forfeit?”

“Hell no! Beat her!” Naruto said, which was definitely a compliment of sorts if he expected that he _could_.

“I—okay.”

She apparently was trying not to be noticed as a jinchurriki, so Neji did actually end up winning. She grinned a little wildly at him, though, when she demanded a rematch someday. Dazed, he nodded. 

“Good, because next time, I’m not holding back!”

* * *

As the matches got called, it was a great relief to everyone that they hadn’t been forced against one another. Each opponent, this time, was easy enough to beat. Most of them were lucky enough to be facing either the same opponents they’d beaten before or other genin that just didn’t cut it. 

Instead of being matched up with Sasuke, Yoroi, the chakra draining nin, had the unfortunate fate of being paired up with Naruto. Of course, Yoroi had no idea that this was a bad thing until Naruto sat cross-legged and waited. 

“What they hell? Are you forfeiting?”

“Nah. You make the first hit—I wanna see what happens.”

“I—you’re that arrogant, huh? Your loss.” 

Yoroi laid a hand on Naruto’s shoulder and began. Naruto was unbothered—he’d tested before, after all, how long Shino’s bugs could handle his chakra at a time. It wasn’t long, and a human wasn’t likely to last much longer all things considered. 

“Do you yield?” Yoroi asked. 

“Nope.”

“Why the hell—are you not passing out?”

“Because you’re going to first.”

“ _What._ ”

And, half a minute later, Yoroi did. 

“Uh . . . Winner, Naruto Uzumaki?”

“Hell yeah I am!” Naruto punched into the air, grinning widely. 

It went a little bit like that for each match following—one by one, the time travelers quickly and summarily defeated their opponents. Karin forfeited, leaving Kabuto and a member of Team Dosu as the only match without one of them on it. 

This time, Kabuto actually tried and won. Apparently, Orochimaru wanted more intel. 

“All right—” Hayate coughed. “We’ll draw lots to see who fights who in the exam. You’ll have three months to prepare. Guess it’s a good thing these matches were short, huh. Well, take your numbers!”

Hayate began listing the matches out loud. 

“Kankuro no Sabaku versus Haruno Sakura.” _Huh_ , Kankuro thought. He wasn’t too sure how he felt about fighting her until she elbowed him and leaned in to whisper something. 

“Lady Chiyo and I beat Sasori together. Make of that what you will.” 

He knew how he felt about it now: _terrified_. 

“Please don’t end my ninja career,” was all he said back. She just grinned. 

“Inuzuka Kiba versus Uchiha Sasuke.”

“Aw, fuck,” Kiba mumbled. “Guess I’ll have to train my ass off, huh?” Sasuke just smirked. 

“You’re on, dog breath.”

“Hyuuga Neji versus Hyuuga Hinata.” 

The two cousins glanced at one another. Hinata tilted her head before giving him a small, determined smile. Neji nodded. 

“Yamanaka Ino versus Uzumaki Naruto.” 

Ino and Naruto both grimaced. 

“TenTen versus Akimichi Chouji.” TenTen perked up at that, and Chouji even seemed pleased. 

“At least it’ll be somewhat even,” joked Kiba. “I don’t stand a chance.”

“You could train,” Sasuke suggested. Kiba rolled his eyes. 

“I’ll copy Kankuro here: please just don’t end my shinobi career, man.”

“Nara Shikamaru versus Temari no Sabaku.” Shikamaru’s eye twitched. Temari cackled. 

“No getting away from me this time, Nara!”

“Aburame Shino versus Gaara no Sabaku.” The two of them blinked in tandem. 

“This will be an interesting match. Why? Because we have somewhat similar styles and tactics,” Shino said. Gaara nodded. That left the last match—

“Yakushi Kabuto versus Rock Lee.” 

At this, everyone turned towards Lee with levels of alarm or interest. Lee’s smile had become a bit less sunny and a bit more . . . feral. 

“Yosh! I look forward to fighting you!” he said, eyes locking with Kabuto’s. 

Sakura was grinning—she was going to _love_ watching Kabuto get absolutely wrecked by Lee. She’d been hoping to do it, but she trusted her friend to pummel the asshole. 

Thus begun the next phase—training. 

* * *

Shikamaru turned to his dad for help. 

“Okay, so realistically, if I win, I have to face TenTen or Chouji, then Gaara.” Shikaku frowned. 

“Not Lee, Shino, or Kabuto? What makes you so sure he’d be the next one up?”

“Kabuto is a medi-nin, and not of the same ilk as Tsunade. Lee will wreck him if he’s careful about whatever tricks the guy has. And don’t get me wrong, Shino’s great, but he prefers a support position in a group rather than a one-on-one battle, and Gaara’s kind of the worst opponent for most of us anyway.”

“Why?” 

Shikamaru raised a brow. 

“Dad—I saw him in the second exam. He was plowing through teams singlehandedly like it was nothing. Chouji, Ino, and I just followed in his wake and nabbed a second scroll off of a team he’d already fought. Fighting isn’t even the word—his sand is—it’s like he’s—like he’s got something else fueling his chakra half the time.”

Shikamaru would have loved to have his dad help pick apart his strategy, but that would require revealing another village’s jinchurriki. His dad might already know, but Shikamaru was going to leave it to his old man to figure it out if he didn’t. 

“Hm. Well, after Gaara—”

“I’m not going to beat him,” Shikamaru interrupted. “Even if I make it that far, he’s—it’s just not a possibility. But I want to prolong it and put on a good show to get the promotion, so I was hoping you could help me learn however many of our clan’s jutsus I can handle before the exam comes.” Shikaku sighed. 

“As many as you can?”

“No good shinobi is a one-trick pony. If I make it a pain in the ass now, I won’t have to deal with it later.” Shikaku raised an inquisitive brow but eventually shrugged. 

“Fair. Let’s look through some scrolls I have and see what you want to prioritize.”

* * *

Neji found himself sparring with Hinata every other day throughout the training period. Members of their clan were certainly wary of them when they did, and the elders looked on in interest. 

“Are you certain you want to be sparring regularly before your match?” asked Hanabi when Hinata stepped back to get some water between rounds. 

“We only focus on Hyuga techniques against each other. During the match, we’ll have that and other skills that we work on separately. Plus, this way, our future opponents won’t be able to see clan-specific techniques except at the highest caliber we can muster against one another.”

Hanabi looked startled at first, but she put a hand to her chin in thought. 

“I suppose that makes sense—even if you trained with your respective senseis, your other teammates might see something to their advantage.”

Of course, when they weren’t fighting each other, they sought their own teachers. Hinata turned to Kurenai for further instruction on genjutsu, and Neji turned to Sakura. 

“I’d like to learn medical techniques regardless,” he pointed out. “My Byakugan and my chakra reserves lend to a pretty large potential for at least some type of healing—frankly, the Hyuuga in general have an advantage for chakra healing techniques in general that no one is acknowledging. Chakra scalpels just seem to be a good addition to Gentle Fist.” 

Sakura gave him a wild smile and agreed to start working with him. 

* * *

“Anything on the Kazekage?” asked Termari. Sai grimaced. 

“Danzo had me guard him during a meeting. It’s definitely Orochimaru, and he has much the same plan as before—or at least, his goal is still to cause a commotion and kill the Hokage.” She returned his grimace.

“Well, fuck. I’ll let my brothers know. Any ideas on how to prove it to our sensei?”

“Could watch out for summons,” Sai said. “Did your father have any?”

“Not that I know of—and snakes are pretty damning, as far as identifiers,” she said. “Okay, I’ll talk to Kankuro first and see what I can do. Take care, Sai.”

“Got it,” he nodded.

* * *

Lee spoke at length with Gai on improving his speed and strength the last time—now, he was more concerned about strategy. This time, he was facing an opponent that worked primarily with his mind. 

“Some other teams mentioned that he was a medical ninja, so I’d imagine he’s not going to be beat in a straightforward manner so easily. Strength is not how he wins his battles, so I must face him with my mind, too,” he said. Gai hummed. 

“That’s quite the match, then—have you considered looking into different weaponry to use against him? Having options will deprive him of knowing just how you will meet him in a fight!”

“Of course! I still want to improve my strength and speed, sensei, but adding specialties to my repertoire would be a perfect way to continue!”

“Then we shall speak with TenTen on what will suit you best!”

“Yosh!”

* * *

“Kiba’s not a huge threat, but if I have to go against Gaara—” He wouldn’t, but Kakashi didn’t need to know that— “You saw how quickly his match ended. That sand could easily be deadly. I need an unstoppable offense to beat an unstoppable defense.” 

“Why?”

“Because if I can take down a dangerous enemy that much quicker, more of my allies will make it through a fight,” he said. Sasuke tilted his head. “I remember Zabuza, sensei. I don’t want it to be too late for any of us.”

“Fine, I’ll teach you Chidori.”

It was mostly the same as the first time, in all honesty—Sasuke took his time to learn Chidori and build up stamina to use it more. Then, he asked for a more advanced version, or at least something to create off of it. Kenjutsu, maybe?

Kakashi looked at him oddly for a moment before agreeing to teach him some kenjutsu. 

“Believe it or not, my father was a famous kenjutsu master,” he said mildly. Sasuke nodded.

“The White Fang, right? My mother taught me a few katas in the Uchiha style, but she said he was the best in the village some time ago.”

Kakashi nodded and led Sasuke to the nearest sword shop. 

* * *

Gaara stood across from Baki and fell into a basic taijutsu stance. 

“Are you sure about this?”

“Sensei, I’ll never improve if I don’t fight,” Gaara told him. 

Baki was _so fucking confused_ , and he wasn’t even going to try to hide it. 

“But your sand—”

“Can be penetrated, I think. There’s always someone stronger, faster, smarter,” he replied. “I’ll suppress the sand for now to get an idea of what to do.”

“ . . . very well.” They’d been going for some time—and yes, Gaara’s taijutsu was genin-level for sure—when Temari burst in.

“The Kazekage is dead. I just saw him dismiss a snake summon.”

“Shit,” Baki said. “We’ll have to meet with the Hokage. Grab Kankuro.”

* * *

Kiba grumbled and decided that if he wasn’t going to go very long in the exams, he was going to make a show of it. He and Akamaru had blown any sort of clone trick, so while he definitely needed to show it off in the arena, he also needed something to deal with mister fireball-first-lightning-fist-later Uchiha. 

Kankuro was at the training ground by the time he got there, and they stared at one another. 

“Trying to figure out how to prolong the thing?” he grumbled. 

“Yeah. How am I supposed to deal with her ridiculous strength? Ugh.”

“I’ve got the ultimate-cheat-eyes man, I feel you.”

“I mean, if you blind him you might at least have a temporary advantage?” asked Kankuro. “It’s not like you can go to your sensei for anything—Sasuke could break any genjutsu whatsoever.”

“And your puppets are mostly useless against her,” agreed Kiba. They stared at one another for a few moments. 

“Well, we’re not going to make it farther than round one. Want to train and brainstorm together?” Kankuro finally asked. 

“Hell yeah,” Kiba said. Akamaru barked. 

* * *

Chouji had never been anyone to look for more than the techniques he trusted, but for this fight . . . he needed something. So he went to his dad. 

“I can’t just be an Akimichi,” he explained. “I have to be _me._ ”

“Well, that’s definitely something great to be,” Chouza grinned. “Let’s talk.”

The conversation led to unexpected weapons that still complimented him—sure, an axe or war hammer or gunbai might work well with his size, but he wasn’t exactly a brutal type of kid. No one expects subtle from the big guy. 

“Hm. You know what, I know a jounin that might help with this. Let me introduce you to Genma.”

* * *

Ino walked right up to Sakura and begged for help. 

“He’s your teammate! I’ve got nothing!”

“Fair,” Sakura said. “Naruto is the least predictable person in existence, though, so going in with a specific plan will probably doom you.”

“Ugh,” Ino said. “Then what?”

“Start with your clan techniques,” she advised. "Then find something wild. Preferably high-ranking as a trump card. Naruto will beat it, but at least the proctors will know you can do high-level techniques."

"Yeah, fine. Water or earth, you think?"

"Depends; Naruto's nature is wind."

"Thanks, I'll work on that. Onsen later?"

"You know it!"

* * *

TenTen sighed. Chouji was a powerhouse, but she had a lot to work with, finesse-wise. Even if he came up with a new strategy, there would probably be things he wouldn’t expect from her, so honing her existing skill set seemed to be the way to go. Naruto had given her sealing tips (which was _amazing_ ), so all she had to do was implement them in a way Chouji might not expect. 

A rain down of weapons would be showy, sure. His clan techniques put her at a disadvantage for melee taijutsu—but ninjutsu? Now combining that with her seals might end in something interesting. 

* * *

Temari stared off with Shino. 

“I know you’re not his teammate, but you know a bit more about Nara than me. I can talk to you about Gaara’s sand in the meantime.”

“That is acceptable. The shadow techniques are more extensive than he’s shown you, no doubt, and I want to last more than a few minutes against your brother.”

“I can probably supply you with some desert insects to add to your hive,” she mused. “Baki-sensei keeps a desert ant farm along with a pet spider or two to supply venom for his kunai. They're pets, I promise, never mind anything anyone else tells you.” 

The corners of his mouth perked up over his collar in a smile. 

“That would be invaluable. Let’s discuss.”

* * *

Naruto didn’t have a new plan for meeting Jiraiya. Their relationship was weird on its own—his godfather had never been a father figure, or even a fantastic teacher, when it came down to it. The old man mostly gave him tips and let him off on his own to figure it out. At least Kakashi would observe and make adjustments once in a while. Still . . .

He didn’t remember what date Jiraiya had come back to Konoha, but damn if he didn’t remember where they first met. He passed by the baths in a circuit each day until he saw the white-haired sage, and, with a hint of sorrow weighing in the back of his head, reenacted their first meeting. 

If his punch, when it landed, was a little harder than average, well—Jiraiya had Tsunade as a teammate. He could take it. 

“Oi, gaki, what the hell—” Jiraiya muttered. If Naruto didn’t already know him, he wouldn’t have noticed the moment he froze and recognized him. 

“Pervy old man, you’d better listen up! I’m Uzumaki Naruto, and you’re going to have to listen to me!” 

“Well, I’m the Toad Sage Jiraiya, and—”

“I _know_ ,” Naruto said. Jiraiya blinked. 

“You know?”

“You’re one of the legendary Sannin, y’know. I’m not _that_ dumb,” Naruto huffed. “When my team fought Orochimaru in the Forest of Death, my teammate looked you three up! I recognized you, pervy Sage, and I won’t forget what I learned. You taught the Fourth Hokage? Well, now you’re going to teach the guy who’ll surpass him!” 

Jiraiya tilted his head, an odd, smug look on his face. 

“And why the hell should I do that, kid? Who do you think you are?”

“ _Uzumaki_ Naruto,” he said. “Y’know, one of the last members of the Uzumaki clan? Known for seals? I hear you’re the best seal master Konoha’s got. You’re teaching me.”

“That’s sure as hell not a good enough reason. Later,” Jiraiya said, turning on his heel. Naruto grumbled. 

_Old man needs to learn a lesson, eh, Kurama?_

A chuckle echoed from the seal. 

_Oh, most definitely._

“Pervy Sage,” Naruto called out again. “You’re not going to get a single bit of your ‘research’ done while you’re in town. Not with me here. I will warn off every single girl that walks into the onsen. Not to mention, I’m your godson, and you have a lot of years to make up for!” 

Jiraiya stopped dead in his tracks. _Ha, gotcha._

“What.”

“Jeez, you sound like Sasuke. You heard me! Tou-san named you godfather, and I’d bet a lot of money kaa-san named Uchiha Mikoto as godmother. I’m not really all that surprised you weren’t around—I mean, he probably should have picked, I dunno, someone that normally stays in the village? 

Jiraiya blinked. 

“Do you know who your father is?”

“I’m not a _complete_ idiot, again,” Naruto huffed. “I’ve seen the monument for how many years now? It’s not like it was a secret he was married, and considering the night he and his wife died was the same night I was born _and_ the resemblance? A Suna genin with a few days and some incentive could figure it out like that!” he snapped for emphasis. 

“Kid, that’s an S-rank secret,” Jiraiya huffed. 

“Yeah, well, tell that to every civilian that knows about the _other_ S-ranked secret I’ve got—they’ve called me a demon brat since before I knew what they were talking about,” Naruto grumbled. “Now are you going to teach me or what? I want to learn the Hiraishin. Or chakra chains, I’m not picky.”

Jiraiya made a distressed noise in the back of his throat. 

“ _I_ don’t even know Hiraishin, kid. Fine, hell, I’ll teach you something your father taught me.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Holidays!


	5. Chunin Exams: Round 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The students fight with a great deal more capability than their jounin senseis anticipated.

Jiraiya did not know what to do with Naruto. That much was clear on his face when he met Kakashi that night at the jounin standby station. 

“He knows too much,” Jiraiya said as he leaned back in his chair, staring at the ceiling. “I don’t get it. _How._ ”

“Us jounin are trying to figure out the Konoha Twelve, same as you—they’re all weirdly extra competent, lately. None of us can quite figure it out.”

“Konoha Twelve?”

“Teams seven, eight, nine, and ten. All of them are . . . weird. It started a bit before we all nominated them for the exams. Watch, you’ll see what I mean.”

“If Naruto summoning a giant toad on his first try is any indication, I’m going to end up with a worse drinking problem than Tsunade.” That left the other jounin in the room to pause—it was difficult for them to forget, after all, just how talented Naruto’s parents had been. To think he’d taken after them . . . well, everyone was of the same mind as Jiraiya on that count. 

Too soon, the training period was over. The third exam was set to begin. Hayate had a difficult coughing fit before gesturing for Genma to take over as proctor for them.

“We’ll begin with round one today. The first match is Kankuro no Sabaku versus Haruno Sakura.”

Sakura cracked her knuckles. No one could really tell if Kankuro paled or not under his paints, but he took a defensive stance all the same. 

“This’ll be interesting,” she chirped. Anyone watching could see Kankuro tense, but it was strange to see him do so against the pink-haired kunoichi at least a head shorter than him. 

“Yeah, yeah,” Kankuro griped.

“Begin!”

Sakura dove forward, kunai in hand. Kankuro dove to the side and started laying chakra strings. He’d done speed training with an Inuzuka, so for at least a little while, he had her at a disadvantage. 

“Stay—the hell—still!” she said, leaping over a chakra string intended to tie her up in a net. 

“Not a chance!”

It was then that the jounin learned why Kankuro was so freaked out. Sakura snarled and punched the ground, disrupting the entire arena into a crater. Even the walls cracked. 

This sent Kankuro stumbling forward, but again, he’d been training with Kiba on speed and agility. He quickly regained his composure and looked to the side only to grimace—his puppet hadn’t quite followed with that same movement at his side and was caught in the cracks she’d made. 

“Ugh, fucking _fine,_ ” he said, and summoned a C-rank earth jutsu—an earth dome—around her before freeing his puppet and prepping senbon. 

Not that his poisons would do _anything_ against a medic of her caliber, but hey, he was trying. The fight was one-sided but impressive. In the end, Sakura _did_ get close enough to land a punch. 

“Yield!” Kankuro shrieked, ducking. Her fist went wide into the wall behind him and made another sizable crater. 

“Winner by concession—Haruno Sakura!” Genma called. “Now, someone good at Doton want to fix up the arena before the next match? Get ready, Inuzuka Kiba and Uchiha Sasuke.”

Kakashi didn’t have to repress the smirk that was growing as he watched. Sasuke was more than prepared for the match, based on his training evaluation. Then again, he hadn’t watched Kiba training at all. 

“Ready, dog-breath?” Sasuke asked. Kiba groaned audibly. “Nah, man. No one’s ever ready for a fight with you.”

“At least you admit it,” Sasuke said. As soon as Genma called for them to start, Kiba and Akamaru transformed into their man-beast clone technique. While normally the two stayed in close quarters to brawl, training with Kankuro had given them some new strategies. Sasuke engaged Akamaru with a quick fight while Kiba started hand signs for an earth jutsu—only it was meant for someone from Suna. It cracked the ground down into unstable sand and mud, slipping Sasuke up for a moment. 

Akamaru launched forward to sink his teeth into Sasuke’s bicep, wrenching the kid downward to keep him in place. With that, Kiba jumped forward again to fight.

Sasuke flipped Akamaru over into his partner’s path, kunai held to the dog clone’s throat. Kiba hesitated, sighed, and signaled his forfeit. 

“Damn flexible asshole,” he said. Sasuke shrugged. Genma cleared his throat and called the match. 

“Winner, Sasuke. Hyuuga Neji and Hyuuga Hinata, come to the ring. You’re up.”

The cousins calmly entered the ring. 

“It’s been quite some time since we’ve sparred full-out, ne, Neji-nii?” Hinata asked. 

“I agree. May the best fighter win,” he said coolly, a small smile betraying his good humor to Hinata alone. 

Physically, the fight began much like it had their first time around. However, Hinata was sharper and stronger than she had been before, and Neji had a larger repertoire to show off. 

It was a closer match by far, and Hiashi Hyuga frowned at it. When had Hinata--?

“Branch House is the strength of the Main House,” Hinata said loudly. “Hizashi-oji would be proud of your skill. My chakra levels and stamina are lower, however, Neji-ni, so I will concede.” Hiashi winced. Perhaps it was time he spoke with his nephew about what happened that night.

“Winner, Neji! Next is Yamanaka Ino versus Uzumaki Naruto.” Both blondes vaulted over the railing into the arena. 

Ino grinned and rolled her shoulders. Naruto punched his fist into his other hand and laughed. 

“Ready, Yamanaka?”

“You bet, Uzumaki!” she laughed. Then, Genma called for them to start. 

Immediately, Ino pulled out a pair of sai and clashed with Naruto, who had a pair of pronged kunai in his own hands to catch them both. 

Ino looked at them, gave them a double-take, and frowned. 

“So we’re playing it like this, huh?”

“Not yet,” he said, grinning. “But I figure we can have fun with this one, yeah?”

“Replacement,” she suddenly said, and she was a few feet back, and Naruto cut through a leaf that she’d dropped on the arena floor at the beginning of the match. She then started her Mind Transfer Jutsu with a grin. Naruto backed up a bit, but still got caught by her jutsu.

His face went blank a moment as Ino’s body slumped slightly. Normally, this would allow her to control him enough to force a concession. 

Naruto, however, had two people in his body already. 

_Getting a little crowded, Yamanaka,_ Kurama said with a chuckle. He then pulsed a small amount of biju chakra—just enough to break her concentration. 

She fell backwards and blinked up at Naruto. 

“If it were anyone else that would have been a win, y’know?” he laughed. 

“I know,” she said. “I give up, proctor-san.”

Genma frowned. 

“More than one concession in a row. Huh. Oh well. Winner, Naruto! Now—TenTen and Akimichi Chouji.”

The two readied themselves. 

Meanwhile, up in the stands, Kakashi glanced at the Kage viewing box. Hiruzen and Rasa were supposedly the only two there, given that the Sand Siblings and Konoha genin were the only ones participating at this level. Other Kages had sent representatives to observe, but didn’t come themselves. Sai was on the ANBU detail under ROOT, and he recognized Captain Yamato on the Hokage’s guard.

“Your genin seem to be quite strong this year, Hiruzen,” Rasa said. “My son is not one to give up so easily.”

“Mm. This generation is quite promising indeed,” said the Hokage. “I have faith that they’ll overcome the challenges the previous one has left for them.” Rasa hummed. Sai was almost impressed with how well the two were sparring verbally—except Orochimaru had no idea that Hiruzen knew his game. 

He turned to look over the arena again, to see that Tenten had taken a ton of senbon to her bare arm, but Chouji was the one pinned to the ground with a kunai to his neck. 

Interesting. He should have watched more closely; Chouji had certainly increased his speed and added to his weapon repertoire.

“Winner, Tenten! Nara Shikamaru and Temari no Sabaku, report to the arena.”

Somehow, their match began with an almost exact replica of the match they’d once had. 

Then, Shikamaru’s grin sharpened, and Temari dropped her fan and pulled two small bladed fans instead. 

Then her large fan began to glow. 

“Shit!” Shikamaru cussed as he realized what she’d done. Shino had supplied her with a bioluminescent paint that the Aburame had developed using some of their nocturnal insects, and she had painted a thin layer on her fan to activate with chakra. Now, with the glow, Shikamaru literally could not use his typical shadow possession. 

That didn’t stop him from diving forward physically. Temari wouldn’t let him leave her range on top of the glowing fan, so the fight lasted at a stalemate for a while as she tried to keep him too busy to think. 

Valiant strategy, yes. One that would win?

Shikamaru spun around with a high kick, bringing his heel down on her collarbone and using the impact to wrench himself upwards. 

Temari’s eyes widened as he made a hand sign and used his shadow jutsu—only—

“Shadow-Neck-Binding-Jutsu,” he said, holding the shadows directly on her neck tightly. “If I activate this further, your neck snaps and you die.”

“Hngh—I—concede,” she said. He loosened it and leapt backwards and away from her. She tapped the dust off of it and slung it on her back again. 

“Not bad, Nara,” she said. 

“Likewise,” he said. “That was a troublesome match.”

“Winner, Shikamaru! Next up is Gaara no Sabaku versus Aburame Shino.”

Shino and Gaara both walked into the arena calmly. 

“Mm, who do you think wins this?” asked Kurenai. 

“Gaara,” said her two students. She blinked. 

“You don’t believe in Shino?”

“Oh, I believe in him—he’d beat the hell out of Kankurou or me, for example. But Gaara’s kind of . . . well, it’s a bad match up for most of us,” Kiba said. 

“You think so?” asked Chouji. 

“Yeah, man. Sand plus bugs? Not necessarily the best combination.” The two of them stood awkwardly

Until Shino had scorpions join in his offensive swarm. Gaara grimaced and created a bunch of tiny sand coffins in retaliation, crushing some of them. He whipped out a sandstorm around himself, and Shino’s swarm defended him, too—until sand began weighing each of them down. Shino suddenly raised his hand. 

“I concede. The sand is going to end my hive if I’m not careful.”

Gaara recalled his sand into his gourd and nodded. 

“Good match, Aburame.” Genma scratched his head but shrugged. 

“Winner, Gaara! Next up is the final match: Rock Lee versus Yakushi Kabuto.”

All of the exam participants tensed and focused in on the arena as one. Their senseis noticed the minor killing intent leaking around the stands. 

“I’m not imagining this?” asked Asuma faintly. 

“What the _hell_ is up with our kids?” grumbled Baki. 

Kakashi thought back to the ROOT agent that had told them to wait. The explanation had better be damned good.

Lee stood proud and grinning on one side, and Kabuto seemed calm, serious, and poised. 

“Begin!” called Genma, and Lee’s grin sharpened. When Kabuto didn’t leap forward to attack, Lee did. Kabuto brought up his kunai to catch in the chains of the nunchuks, attempting to twist up into them. Lee slid in close and pulled the nunchuks apart, yanking the kunai out of Kabuto’s hands. Kabuto backed off to grab more kunai, but Lee didn’t let him have any time, launching forward with _was that a fucking gunbai what the fuck_. Kakashi rounded on his green-suited rival with a glare. 

“When did _you_ learn gunbai combat techniques?” he asked. 

“I have studied many weapons, but this is not one,” Gai said. 

“It’s my fault,” Sasuke huffed. “Lee needed something lighter than a battleaxe and my clan had scrolls on it. Made sense. I’m more of a kenjutsu person anyway.” 

Scrolls on a weapon made most famous by Madara himself. It was . . . strange. But Lee was wielding it well, slamming Kabuto across the arena with incredible strength and grace. 

“Where did he even hide it?” grumbled Kakashi. “And why would you help him with a new weapon when you might face it?”

“Lee wasn’t the only one to read the scroll, sensei. And that part _is_ on him,” he jammed a thumb at Gai, who grinned. 

“I may not be a seal expert, but Tenten’s interest has rubbed off on me! I was able to acquire a storage seal that only requires a line of ink in a certain place to activate, and for it to be smudged away is a simple thing to do to reset it. Lee has been building his arsenal with great fervor during his training!” he said. 

It was true. With one hand he threw a flurry of kunai and with the other he twisted the gunbai to catch Kabuto’s answering wave of water. 

Kabuto was beginning to look genuinely harried now. He began using chakra scalpels in an effort to catch Lee off guard, but the taijutsu user hadn’t even started. He dove backwards long enough to drop his weights and blur with speed even as they impacted on the ground. 

Kabuto was many dangerous things, but a frontline fighter was not one of them. Lee had him made within minutes, panting and bloodied. 

Kabuto cried out a “yield,” before collapsing into the dirt, and Lee and the other participants looked . . . disappointed. 

_Vicious little monsters, the lot of you,_ Kakashi thought. _I wonder why the animosity to this one guy, though. Hm._

“Winner, Lee! Uh, can we get a medic here? Um.”

Though Sakura had been healing her fellow genin’s minor wounds on the sly, she didn’t stand up. Genma sighed. 

“Well done, everyone. The first round of the chunin exams is done. Take half an hour to rest up for round two—it’ll start with Haruno Sakura versus Uchiha Sasuke.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoyed my feeble attempt at presenting combat, my absolute writing weakness! 
> 
> Law school didn't work out so I'm applying to some other programs rn and looking for work - obviously meaning writing will take a backseat - but this was close to done the past few days so I finished it this morning! Take care, drink some water, and enjoy your day!


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